River Raid?

[0078265317]

I got a used copy of river raid from amazon. No box game only. All I get is black screen. No game. My 5200 is not busted because all others work. If I wiggle the game I finally get the screen with jumbled letters on the top row under the glowing atari and then it turns yellow and stops. No game loads. Contacts are clean and no dirt is coming off. My qbert does the same thing some times. The off brand carts seem to be trouble. Except my frogger works great. I am afraid to order another river raid. Might be the same thing. What else can I try to fix this game?

[+Ryan Witmer]

I have this problem a lot with Activision titles, and I've found that given enough time they start working. There also seems to be a connection between how long it's been since I played it, and how long it takes the cartridge to finally work.

 

Just keep removing and reseating the game until it goes. Once it finally does work, make sure to play it often and it will probably keep working. This shouldn't be hard, because River Raid is awesome, probably my favorite game on the system.

[+Cafeman]

Same thing happens to me with River Raid. I ended up removing the pcb from the cart and just using that. Maybe if you folded a sheet of paper and tried to wad behind the cart, it would seat correctly to make a connection.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

Wonder if the issue is similar to Activision games on the 2600 and especially the 7800 where they don't always work right because the actual PCBs on Activision carts are a tad thinner than Atari and others?

[0078265317]

Don't wat to break it. How do you open shell. There is no screw just one tab at the top.

[BassGuitari]

Activision cartridges (and to varying degrees, other third-party carts as well) are really touchy. They must have a thinner PCB or something because they just don't connect securely. Similar effect as an NES with a worn-out connector--simply, not all the pins are making proper contact.

Your River Raid cart in all probability is perfectly good.

[+DamonicFury]

Activision cartridges (and to varying degrees, other third-party carts as well) are really touchy. They must have a thinner PCB or something because they just don't connect securely. Similar effect as an NES with a worn-out connector--simply, not all the pins are making proper contact.

 

Your River Raid cart in all probability is perfectly good.

 

Yep, exactly. The good news is that with a REALLY thorough cleaning, you can probably get the game to work. I've really had to scrub some of those Activision cart connectors hard before they'd work, but I've only had one (a Beamrder cart) absolutely refuse to work, no matter how hard I cleaned it. Probably wouldn't hurt to clean the 5200's cart connector as well (fold an index card in half, cut it to the size of a cart's connector, then soak the folded edge in alcohol or Deoxit. Insert a credit card into the fold, then push the whole thing in and out a few times.)

[zylon]

I just wedge a pack of matches in front of it when playing.

[0078265317]

I just wedge a pack of matches in front of it when playing.

 

And then 5 minutes later the matches probably start sparking.

[0078265317]

I couldn't figure out how to get the shell off. It won't budge. And no matter what I did all I got was garbled text or black screen. It just would not budge. I was so frustrated. I was about to give up. Finally it came on. And works now. So weird. All of a sudden after half an hour of no luck. How weird.

[bohoki]

sometimes crud gets in the interface area maybe blow it out with some compressed air and use a unfolded paper clip to kind of dig around the outside in the console maybe even take a file and chamfer the outside of the cartridge plastic i notice they king of bottom out early

 

you can also use a little slice of cardboard from a cereal box to clean the contacts

[bohoki]

sometimes crud gets in the interface area maybe blow it out with some compressed air and use a unfolded paper clip to kind of dig around the outside in the console maybe even take a file and chamfer the outside of the cartridge plastic i notice they king of bottom out early

 

you can also use a little slice of cardboard from a cereal box to clean the contacts

[+DamonicFury]

I couldn't figure out how to get the shell off. It won't budge. And no matter what I did all I got was garbled text or black screen. It just would not budge. I was so frustrated. I was about to give up. Finally it came on. And works now. So weird. All of a sudden after half an hour of no luck. How weird.

Glad to hear it's working! Just FYI, there are two screws behind the label that need to be removed before you can open an Activision cart.

[Starstormer]

I'll occasionally have that issue with a 5200 game, usually reinserting the game fixes it.

[0078265317]

River Raid stopped working again. Today its back to garbled text on the screen and does not load.

[0078265317]

Now its working. I had no choice but to destroy the label and remove the screws. There was a lot of black on the gold contacts. No matter how hard I scrubbed it would not come off. It still hasn't. But anyhow after scrubbing with soap and water and the yellow soft side of a sponge now it works. With the board only it boots and no matter how hard I wiggle it still works. After reassembling the cart it loads every time now. If I wiggle it gets garbled screen or letters. But when you boot first time it loads every time. Hope it still does tomorrow.

[Hank Rearden]

I used acetone on my River Raid cartridge as recommended and it worked! I did not have to take cartridge apart.

[ave1]

My Beamrider cart sometimes requires me to push it all the way in and then ever so slightly pull it up by a millimeter or two for it to work. It can take three or four attempts to get it seated just right. Sometimes putting cardboard in front of or behind the inserted cart can also be helpful, but I don't usually do that.

 

I've also blown on the contacts, though I know that's not really a great way to maintain the lifespan of a cart.

[Hank Rearden]

My Beamrider cart sometimes requires me to push it all the way in and then ever so slightly pull it up by a millimeter or two for it to work. It can take three or four attempts to get it seated just right. Sometimes putting cardboard in front of or behind the inserted cart can also be helpful, but I don't usually do that.

 

I've also blown on the contacts, though I know that's not really a great way to maintain the lifespan of a cart.

Pretty sure it's the contacts. Clean them up very carefully with some acetone. Go to Best Electronics website for their instructions. Works like a champ and no fiddling around anymore.